Start of Atelier pilot: small-scale interactive education
The Atelier pilot officially got underway at Leiden Law School on Thursday 6 February 2025. Four groups, each with a maximum of 18 students, have started the workshops.
Pilot approach
In the six atelier classes, students consider what they learned in regular lectures and tutorials in more depth. This is done in a small-scale and interactive setting with plenty of room for discussion between students and teaching staff and among the students themselves. This is supported by the small ‘discussion islands’ that are set up in the classroom. Students also practise skills such as oral skills, for instance by giving group presentations and participating in debates. The four groups each follow their own track in a carousel model (see below) that focuses on the courses Inleiding Europees recht, Inleiding bestuursrecht and Grondslagen van het recht in varying sequences.
Connecting courses
By participating in atelier classes covering three courses and focussing on a specific theme – this time the theme is the environment – students discover the connections between the courses. For example, in the case of cohort 1:
- Inleiding Europees recht (Ateliers 1 and 2): How can the European Convention on Human Rights be applied in environmental cases, though it makes no mention of the environment? Can Dutch NGOs challenge environmental policy before the European Court of Human Rights?
- Bestuursrecht (Ateliers 3 and 4): What legal options do NGOs have before the Dutch administrative courts in environmental and climate cases?
- Grondslagen van het recht (Ateliers 5 and 6): How does the role of the courts compare with that of the democratically elected legislature in environmental matters? And what role should NGOs play in this?
The atelier classes challenge students to think critically about the balance between legislation, justice and the promotion of interests.
Initial response
One member of the teaching staff said of the pilot so far: ‘I especially like seeing students learning to cooperate more and the discussions they have together. It takes them some time to get used to at first, but they soon loosen up. Their enthusiasm grows as soon as they understand the connections. My first impression is that it’s catching on well and helping students to think more critically.’
Evaluation and implementation
The Atelier pilot will be evaluated during and after completion in cooperation with ICLON. Among other things, students will be asked whether they found the atelier classes interactive and small-scale, whether the classes helped them to absorb the courses’ subject matter more easily, whether they learn to make connections between the regular courses, whether it helps to develop their skills further, and whether the effort of attending these atelier classes and the reward they derive from them is in balance. The evaluation of the pilot will provide input for the further implementation of the Kernvisie from 2025-2026 onwards.
More information will be shared after the evaluation. If you have a question about the Atelier pilot in the meantime, please contact Kristof Gombeer (k.c.n.gombeer@law.leidenuniv.nl).